Carnival Breeze - A Southern Caribbean Independence Day Review!

About us – DH and I are mid-50s and sail with two of our three sons, 19 and 15. The 19 YO just graduated from high school the week before sailing and goes off to college in the fall to study sports management. Younger son just finished his freshman year of high school. The oldest (24) last sailed with us on Carnival in 2009, his senior year of high school. That was his 9th Carnival cruise – but he’s long passed us in time at sea. He spent a year at sea (literally sailed around the world) during his college time at the US Merchant Marine Academy and after graduation went active duty Navy. He’s a Lieutenant JG now; two weeks before sailing we had a social media sighting of him hugging a koala in Brisbane. Of course, if he sailed with us now he’d only be a Gold card, as opposed to our Platinum.:p

 

 

Dan and Koala by baxted, on Flickr

LTJG Dan and his new best friend, in Australia. I can't leave him out of a review even if he hasn't sailed with us in 6 years.

 

So why Breeze? Last year we did two summer cruises, one to Alaska and one from Miami on Glory. When we sailed on Glory, Breeze was in port with us in Miami and sons fell in love. So…. A few weeks after we returned we booked the July 4, 2015 Breeze Southern Caribbean itinerary. Three ports we’d never visited – La Romana, Curacao, and Aruba. (This would be our fourth visit to Grand Turk.) We booked one of the deck 7 bowling alley balconies and the balcony cabin just forward. We’re balcony snobs. The cabins did not disappoint.

 

 

So it’s mid-June. The older son has finished his classes and exams, while the younger is gearing up for finals and Regents exams. But wait – there’s a football mini-camp before finals. Day four of camp, he goes all out to catch a pass and promptly gets tackled – and breaks his collarbone. (He was still proud that he didn’t cough up the ball.) Well, this puts a crimp in our cruise style – we had already booked shore excursions for La Romana (speedboat and beach) and Aruba (snorkel). Oh well – if necessary he could just stay out of the more strenuous parts of the tours. And this was at least better than the 2006 Legend cruise that our eye doctor wanted us to cancel the day before sailing because oldest son (yes, that one in the Navy today) managed to get shot in the eye with an Airsoft gun. (No, we did not cancel that cruise. And his eyesight did not suffer. He just stayed out of the water, for the most part.)

 

 

We (okay, I) did a lot of research before sailing. We tend to plan excursions according to activity and port time. Last year we booked lots of Carnival excursions; this year, not one. We book Carnival excursions when we see something not available elsewhere, or when the port time is limited. This time we were comfortable enough with our schedule that independent tours were worth booking. More on our excursions in the ports section of the review.

 

We do not fly in the same day of the cruise – there’s just too much that can go wrong. In fact, we try to build in some extra time before the cruise – it’s a safety cushion and an early start to vacation, if everything goes according to schedule. For a Saturday cruise, we planned to fly in on Thursday morning. With two days to explore, we decided to spend time in the Keys, which we’ve never visited. Key Largo, to be specific. Why Key Largo? It’s relatively close to our cruise – and one local attraction is the African Queen. The real steamboat. She putters around in the Key Largo canals. DH is a big fan of the movie, and he loves steamboats (he’s a mechanical engineer). We booked a room at the Hampton Inn Key Largo and booked a rental car from Hertz.

Edited July 19, 2015 by nybumpkin

We had a Southwest flight booked from ALB to FLL nonstop. Amazingly, there were about 40 empty seats on this flight! DH and I were able to have aisle and window seats with no one in the middle seats. Upon arriving at FLL, we made our way to the Hertz rental area. We had booked a Chevy Malibu – but were upgraded to an Infiniti QX80 SUV. A monster car – it was huge. However, it was comfortable. DH found it wasn’t easy to drive, though – at the end of the day, he wished we had stayed with the Malibu.

 

 

Out of the airport and on our way to Key Largo. It was easy enough, direction-wise – Florida Turnpike south to Route 1. However, South Florida traffic lived up to its reputation. It was pretty crazy. However, we made it to the Hampton Inn around 1:00. Since our room wasn’t quite ready we walked a short distance to D-Hooker, a nearby restaurant. A great feature of restaurants in the Keys is the fresh fish – many serve the catch of the day. D-Hooker was no exception, with a very good Mahi Mahi sandwich, not to mention local brew on tap. Dinner that night was The Fish House, not far from the Hampton Inn (but really not walkable – Route 1 is crazy and you would have to cross it). They pride themselves on fresh caught fish and also have a fish market on site. I opted for a Jamaican jerk grouper – very good, and more than enough for lunch the next day. In fact, we brought back enough leftovers for all of us to have lunch the next day.

 

 

Waterfront, Hampton Inn Key Largo by baxted, on Flickr

Hampton Inn Bayside beach

 

 

Beach, Hampton Inn Key Largo by baxted, on Flickr

Hampton Inn Beach

 

 

 

This Hampton Inn is on the bayside of Key Largo, with a nice pool, beach area, and tiki bar. We were fortunate enough to have a mama and baby manatee come right up to the dock.

 

 

 

Mother and Calf by baxted, on Flickr

Momma and Baby

 

 

Tiki bar, Hampton Inn by baxted, on Flickr

Tiki bar

 

 

 

After the Fish House, we enjoyed some nice beach time and a beautiful sunset.

 

 

Sunset at Key Largo by baxted, on Flickr

Sunset

 

 

Key Largo Sunset by baxted, on Flickr

And an even more spectacular sunset shot

Edited July 19, 2015 by nybumpkin

What great pictures!! The one of the manatees is wonderful, as is the Koala bear with your handsome son. Can't wait to read more.

Edited July 19, 2015 by NeuroQueen

After breakfast at the hotel (typical Hampton Inn breakfast – nothing fancy, but perfectly acceptable), we headed two miles down Route 1 to the African Queen. She docks at the marina next to the Holiday Inn. Lots of people were there for the glass bottom boat, but the Queen takes 6 passengers maximum. We booked ahead of time and were joined by Mr. Holmes from York, England.

 

 

African Queen at dock by baxted, on Flickr

The African Queen at dock. Docked forward is a glass bottom boat.

 

 

 

 

Our captain was dressed in true Bogart fashion, with a cap, blue and white striped shirt, and red neckerchief. He spent some time (while the boiler was warming up) to talk about the boat’s history and how she came to Key Largo. (Interestingly, he related that the city of Key Largo was named after the movie – not vice versa. The name was Rock Harbor. And aside from some stock footage, none of the movie was filmed in Key Largo. Bogie and Bacall were never there.) The African Queen was built in 1912 as the S/L Livingstone, ferrying cargo around the Congo in Africa. John Huston found her for the movie and the rest is history. The boiler and steam engine are not original to the boat – the engine actually dates to 1896. DH loved the engine and made two videos of it in operation.

 

 

AQ Engine and Boiler by baxted, on Flickr

Boiler and 1896 engine

 

 

African Queen 1896 Engine by baxted, on Flickr

1896 engine

 

 

African Queen looking forward by baxted, on Flickr

African Queen bow, sailing through Key Largo

 

 

Key Largo Canal by baxted, on Flickr

Key Largo Canal

 

 

Matt aboard African Queen by baxted, on Flickr

Matt

 

 

 

Travel time is 90 minutes, traveling along Key Largo’s canals out to the ocean. You can take the helm if you’d like (DH thought she was rather sluggish in handling). There also is an antique (empty) bottle of Gordon’s Gin if you’d like to re-create Katherine Hepburn’s famous scene of dumping out Bogie’s gin supply.

In all, it was a great tour and perfect to do before lunch. Afterward we stopped at Publix for things we had forgotten back home, buy some wine (one bottle for after dinner that night on the beach plus two to bring on the ship), and go back to the hotel to have the previous night’s leftovers for lunch. Afterward we planned to go to John Pennecamp State Park – but it was way too crowded, so we opted for another day at the pool and beach at the hotel. Dinner was Bayside Grille – beautiful view of the bay and really good food. Back at the hotel, we got out our bottle of wine and enjoyed sunset on the beach.

 

 

Hampton Inn Iguanas by baxted, on Flickr

The Hampton Inn has a number of resident iguanas. Folks at the tiki bar feed them fruits and vegetables.

 

 

Another Hampton Inn Iguana by baxted, on Flickr

Iguana, up close and personal

 

 

Hampton Inn flora by baxted, on Flickr

Some local flora. We don't grow anything like this in Upstate New York.

 

 

Sunset, Key West Day 2 by baxted, on Flickr

Another sunset. I think I need this one as wallpaper.

Great pics! I'm going on this cruise on 8/1 and am looking forward to reading your review!

We woke early for breakfast then drove the car back to FLL. At the airport, we had booked SAS to take us to the port. Funny story: I had been part of a social media group with CC member etwright. While we were in the shuttle, he posted “in the van now on the way to the port.” I posted back, “I do believe I am sitting three rows behind you.” I watched him look at his phone, do a double take, and look behind – I waved.:D

 

 

 

Priority check-in was very busy – in fact, they had to seat people in a separate area before boarding. However, we were aboard around 11:45 and our cabins were ready for us. DH and I had 7455, the bowling alley starboard side cabin, while the boys had 7449, the next forward balcony. 7455 has a hallway that wraps around a crew staircase and the balcony is twice as long as a regular balcony cabin. I never got the names of our stewards – we didn’t see them until the next day. However, they had the balcony divider opened when we asked and took great care of the cabins. We also used the Platinum laundry service twice. The second time the clothes came back later than they should have, but it was only a problem for our youngest son who somehow didn’t pack enough t-shirts. We told him to just wear one he had already worn – it wasn’t that dirty.

 

 

Cabin 7455 hallway by baxted, on Flickr

Cabin 7455 Hallway

 

 

Cabin 7455 and balcony by baxted, on Flickr

Cabin 7455 bed, bathroom and balcony door

 

 

Cabin 7449 and balcony by baxted, on Flickr

Cabin 7449

 

 

Balconies 7455 and 7449, aft by baxted, on Flickr

7455 and 7449 opened balconies, looking aft

 

 

Balconies 7455 and 7449, forwards by baxted, on Flickr

7455 and 7449 opened balconies, looking forward

 

 

 

There was a very large group aboard celebrating a quinceanera. They all booked through a travel agency that specializes in celebrating quinceaneras – who knew? They would have their celebration on the first sea day, followed by a reception before dinner in the main theater. It looked like everyone had a good time.

 

 

Lunch (for me) was a Guy’s Burger. We like to have breakfast and lunch at one of the tables near the Lido Deck midships pool – we love the open air and people-watching opportunities. Never had a problem finding a table for breakfast, but lunch was pretty crowded. A couple of times we opted for an outside table by the aft pool – there usually was space there. After lunch, it was time to explore.

Fantastic start! Can't wait to read more!

We’ve sailed on most of the Conquest-class and Spirit-class ships, as well as Carnival Fantasy and Carnival Victory, so we’re well acquainted with the Joe Farcus designs. I’ve never had a problem with his “over the top” designs, although there is usually one lounge or dining area where I say, “What was Farcus thinking”? The dining room on Miracle is probably the ugliest dining room afloat. Breeze is the first Carnival ship with no Farcus influence. I thought she is nicely designed and decorated and well laid out. While there were some crowded areas at times, I didn’t find the bottlenecks that I’ve seen on other ships. It did take me some time to figure out where everything was, and even now I don’t think I found everything – the Thrill Theater comes to mind. There were also a number of venues we didn’t try – Bonsai Sushi, Cucina del Capitano, and Farenheit 555, for example (although we did visit the Steakhouse for a cooking demonstration). Of course, some people never found their way around – on Day 5 of the cruise, I encountered a woman standing by the aft Lido elevators – right next to the ship’s map display, which included the words “forward,” “aft” and “you are here” – insisting that she and her party were at the forward end of the ship!

 

 

Breeze Atrium 4 by baxted, on Flickr

Breeze Atrium, Flag for Independence Day!

 

 

Breeze Atrium 2 by baxted, on Flickr

Breeze Atrium, looking up

 

 

Casino by baxted, on Flickr

Casino

 

 

Ovation Theater by baxted, on Flickr

Ovation Lounge. This was the only time I visited. You see, I don't like the Playlist Productions Shows so I never went to any of them. There were some other shows that looked good but we were just too tired to go.

 

 

Sign at Blue Iguana Bar by baxted, on Flickr

Blue Iguana Sign

 

 

Bonsai Sushi by baxted, on Flickr

Bonsai Sushi

At 2:00 we had our roll call/social media groups’ get-together. We converged on the Red Frog Pub and kinda took over. It was a lot of fun and nice to meet a number of people in person.

 

 

Seating area, Red Frog Pub by baxted, on Flickr

Red Frog Pub

 

 

Muster drill was painless – we met in the aft dining room. The cruise director, Dr. E (subbing for Matt Mitcham, who was on vacation) did his best to make it fun. He’s a great cruise director. He’s taking over as CD on Carnival Magic after finishing up on Breeze. After muster drill, there was a sailaway party on Lido deck – although we didn’t actually sail away until after 6:00. They were installing scrubbers on Breeze’s exhaust system to avoid the need to use more expensive fuel.

 

 

Glory Sailaway by baxted, on Flickr

Glory sailing from Miami. This was last year's cruise.

 

 

Breeze Sailaway Party by baxted, on Flickr

Breeze sailaway party

 

 

Breeze Sailaway Party 2 by baxted, on Flickr

Line dancing at sailaway party

 

IMG_2392 by baxted, on Flickr

Coast Guard ships in Miami

For the first time in 21 cruises, in the dining room we scored a table for four right next to an aft-facing window. We’ve never had a window table of any kind! Right then and there we decided that this would not be a cruise where we would skip the dining room for the Steakhouse, or the Chef’s Table, or some other dinner option. This table was too good to miss. Plus, we had a great wait staff – Rustem our headwaiter and assistants Vigor and Janz William. The boys had soda every night without needing to ask. And Rustem was able to do something amazing: he got the 19 YO to eat something other than hamburgers and pizza. Yes, son tried the alligator fritters – and liked them. Breeze has the American Table/Feast menus, which I really like. I always found a good selection.

 

 

Miami in the distance by baxted, on Flickr

Sailing from Miami - View from our aft dining room table.

 

 

Fisher Island Ferry by baxted, on Flickr

Fisher Island Ferry

 

 

Blush dining room by baxted, on Flickr

Blush Dining Room

 

After dinner we didn’t do much – just too tired.

Woo! Another Breeze review! I'm loving it so far! Keep up the great work!

I'm really enjoying your review so far, too. [emoji4]

Great review so far! DH and I are 13 days away from this cruise.

Looking forward to the rest of your review. So enjoying the pictures, especially the decor. We will be on the Breeze in April for a b2b, first leg southern. I've never been fond of the over the top, gaudy decore on the ships. The Breeze looks so much nicer.

Edited July 19, 2015 by kona_wahine

No tablecloths on the dining room tables? What's up with that?

Glad to see another review of the Breeze. We'll be on her in March 2016 for 8 days.

Following along! I love your pictures!

No tablecloths on the dining room tables? What's up with that?

On this ship, tablecloths are used only on elegant nights. Same with Carnival Glory. I'm fine with no tablecloths - I've had some occasions where I've gotten tangled up with the tablecloths while trying to take my seat.:o

Cant wait for the rest- 13 days till I'm on Breeze!

DH and I have a sea day morning routine: breakfast at the Lido buffet (most days DH didn’t have to wait long for his omelet) followed by coffee from the Promenade Deck coffee shop and a session of gin rummy. A couple of times we played at the Red Frog Pub (BTW, they have sets of dominoes at some of the tables) while other times we opted for Ocean Plaza. A really nice area, with comfortable seating and access to the outside Lanai. One side of the Lanai allowed smoking.

 

 

 

Lanai outside Ocean Plaza by baxted, on Flickr

The Lanai, early morning. They do open the umbrellas.

 

 

Ocean Plaza by baxted, on Flickr

Ocean Plaza

 

 

Afterward, at 11:30 we headed to Farenheit 555 for the cooking demonstration, which was very good. The chefs demonstrated mushroom cappuccino; baby leaf spinach and mushroom salad; broiled supreme of free-range chicken; mac and cheese; and tiramisu. And yes, there were samples for everyone.

 

 

 

Cooking Demo 2 by baxted, on Flickr

Cooking Demonstration. I think this was the mushroom cappuccino.

 

 

Cooking Demo 4 by baxted, on Flickr

Our chefs with their offerings.

 

 

 

After that, we really didn’t need lunch – but we did stop at the Tandoor station on Lido. I really enjoyed their offerings – some fairly spicy. And the grilled Naan was really good. We walked around – watched the Master Mixologist competition.

 

 

Master Mixologist by baxted, on Flickr

Master Mixologist competition. The guy pictured here with Dr. E was the winner - although Dr. E commented that the concoction looked like Windex!

 

 

 

Aft Lido Deck by baxted, on Flickr

Aft pool fun.

As for the boys, they spent a lot of time on sea days at the sports area. The 19 YO loves to play basketball, and Breeze has a full court – not the half courts on other ships we’ve sailed. Anytime we wanted to find him we knew where to go. Younger son was a bit more limited, with the broken collarbone – but by the end of the cruise he had enough movement to be able to participate in some sports activities. We did mini golf as a family on the last sea day. He signed up for Club O2 but really didn’t participate in many activities.

 

 

Matt and Bball by baxted, on Flickr

Son (blond guy with the sleeveless tee) on the basketball court.

 

 

Ropes course by baxted, on Flickr

Roped course, with mini golf beneath.

 

 

Lido and Waterworks by baxted, on Flickr

Lido deck and Waterworks.

 

 

 

This was the first elegant night. There were some suits and gowns, but aside from the folks celebrating the quinceanera most people opted for dresses and shirt/tie. All of us (except the 19 YO) opted for the lobster and shrimp, which as usual didn’t disappoint. After dinner we went to the early comedy show – when we left people were already lining up for the next show. One night I arrived 15 minutes before the show and it was already standing room only.

 

 

Limelight Lounge by baxted, on Flickr

Limelight Lounge, home of the comedy shows.

This was our fourth visit to Grand Turk. It’s a short, early port day – 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. We weren’t in any hurry to get off the ship, so we decided to take our time, get some breakfast at the buffet, and disembark around 9:00. Well, most of the other passengers seemed to have the same idea. The buffet lines were awful. It took me longer to stand in line than to eat.

 

 

Boys on pier 1 by baxted, on Flickr

The boys and Breeze

 

 

The first time we visited Grand Turk we stayed at the beach outside Margaritaville and didn’t care for it. It was crowded and the water right by the pier wasn’t great – the water was murky and the bottom had rocks. Then we learned about Jack’s Shack, about a 10-minute walk down the beach, and we’ve visited every time since then. Jack is retired from marine construction (his last job was building the cruise ship pier) and his wife Janet is a retired nurse. They combined with a dive shop and opened a tiki bar. Chairs on the beach are free, umbrellas are $10. We set up shop on the beach (etwright and his wife were several beach chairs down) and proceeded to enjoy the water. It was perfect – clear water and sandy bottom. And Jack makes a mean rum punch. They did a rousing business this day – the bar area was crowded.

 

 

Jack's Shack by baxted, on Flickr

Jack's Shack.

 

 

Boys at Jack's by baxted, on Flickr

Boys enjoying some absolutely wonderful swimming.

 

 

 

Doug, Kathy and rum punch by baxted, on Flickr

Doug, me and a Rum Punch.

 

 

Topher by baxted, on Flickr

Topher, the most photographed dog in the Caribbean. By the way, while Topher is decidedly not a stray, there are a number of stray dogs along the beach and there is a box at Margaritaville for donations to help care for them.

 

 

Breeze from Jack's 3 by baxted, on Flickr

Breeze as seen from Jack's Shack.

 

 

 

We headed back to the ship around noon. I had one purchase to make in the duty-free store: a bottle of Bambarra Rum, produced in the Turks and Caicos. Jack offers free shots of it with a coupon you can download from his website. It doesn’t seem to be available in the US, so I wanted to pick up a bottle while here. Mission accomplished.

Very cool pictures of the African Queen...thanks.

We just did this itinerary in March, but love reading others point of view along with what they do in port.

 

Oy your poor son with the broken collar bone. I always yell at mine dont get hurt 30days prior.. cuz I will leave you at home with grandma LOL I have no shame LOL.

 

Liked seeing your Key Largo portion we are thinking of dong that next time ourselves.

 

Loved hearing how your Grand Turk day was, since we had to skip that day due to rough waters/wind.

 

Cant wait to read more!

 

Also a big thank you to your older son for his service in the Navy!

Edited July 19, 2015 by anewmac